not this cute anymore!Going home to the parents house for Christmas is always a treat. I moved into that home when I was five years old and hardly have any memories before then. This home is my childhood... everything good happened inside those walls. It is where I became me.
The Christmas decor is still the same, year after year. The village, the candy cane countdown calendar, the cardboard Santa kissing Mrs. Claus, the white flocked tree. I don't need pictures to remember, but need to take them so I can show my children. In fact, I need my mom to pass down all the decor so I hang it in my house (like that will ever happen with 9 of my siblings who want it too!) Maybe I can just have dibs on the village....
My mom was super busy planning a wedding just days before Christmas, so she wasn't able to put up the majority of her decor. But the stockings WERE hung by the chimney with care:
Growing up with THIS MANY stockings (slash siblings) was totally normal for me, but whenever a friend would come in the house, they would be shocked by the sight. I still remember a guy coming to my house to pick me up for a date and saying, "Whoa! Do you hang your cousins stockings too?" Nope. That comment still makes me laugh.... If he only knew that I have 60+ first cousins.
Do you notice anything odd about one of the stockings? All of the men have red stockings... oh, except for Kevin. His is white like all of the girls and we love to tease him. His stocking still says Baby's First Christmas. He's now 25. It took my mom so long to change it that it became the family joke, and now it just wouldn't be Christmas without Kevie's baby stocking..
Now that I am a mom, and I understand how hard it is emotionally, financially, physically to take care of children, I get a bit overwhelmed just thinking about my parents and the sacrifices they made for each of us. Our stockings were never stuffed.. In fact, I feel a little guilty "spoiling" my kids with presents in their stockings, when I think about the orange and a few chocolates I received in mine. But it proves to me that it's not important what you get as a child, it only matters how you feel. I felt so much love from my parents and siblings... and that is a gift I will carry with me for always and open up on lonely January afternoons when I am missing my family.
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2 comments:
Janet-
It was very nice of you to leave a comment on my blog! I do remember you too, from Annie and a little from Student Government (I was a Jr. class officer). I have to admit I am not as in touch with Annie as I should be, thank goodness for blogs and facebook, or who knows if I would still have any of my old friends. Anyway, I love your blog you have a really beautiful family.
In high school I was embarrassed when some people saw my stocking. I thought it was cool when they did, though. You think I'll be able to save that stocking until I'm 50?
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